After the public briefing, we were hurried to a crowded demo room to see three of those phones, as well as some wearables and a tablet that Samsung also presented.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to do a whole lot with the devices on a crowded show floor. For example, there was no time to set up a fingerprint to see if the reader is fast enough, and the Adobe Premiere Rush CC app announced during the presentation was not installed on any of the phones. Also, Samsung did not offer hands-on opportunities with the 5G Galaxy S10 or its new folding phone. We were told more information about the folding phone will be released at Mobile World Congress later this month.

Along with the S10 smartphones and the new Galaxy Fold handset, Samsung officially announced new wearables in its Galaxy family at its Unpacked event today. The information leaked just days ago purportedly by Samsung's own Galaxy Wearables mobile app has been proven correct as Samsung showed off a new Galaxy Watch Active smartwatch, a Galaxy Fit tracker, and new true wireless earbuds called the Galaxy Buds on stage.

Starting in the audio department, the Galaxy Buds are Samsung's latest shot at the cord-less earphone market popularized by Apple's AirPods. Samsung says they get six hours of battery life on their own per charge, with an additional seven hours available through their charging case. That case supports wireless charging, and can be powered by one of those new Galaxy S10 phones.

The company claims the Galaxy Buds's case is 30 percent smaller than that of its previous Gear IconX earbuds. Samsung's much-maligned Bixby assistant is built into the earphones by default, letting users perform a modicum of smartphone controls with their voice—send texts, answer calls, change songs, and more—but the earphones can also use Google Assistant if desired. They connect over Bluetooth 5, and Samsung is touting easier connectivity with its own devices. The company says the Galaxy Buds' audio has been tuned by its AKG subsidiary, though we'll have to give them a listen before making any judgments there.

The device will start at a whopping $1,980 and arrive on April 26. Samsung says both LTE and 5G-capable variants will be available. The electronics giant detailed the Android phone-tablet hybrid at an event in San Francisco, where it is also expected to unveil its new flagship Galaxy S10 phones.

As the company hinted at its developers conference last year, the Galaxy Fold consists of two displays: a 4.58-inch, 1960x840 resolution panel that serves as a more traditional smartphone display, and a foldable 7.3-inch, 2152x1536 resolution panel that behaves more like a tablet.

If you didn’t notice any Blu-ray player announcements from Samsung at CES this year, there’s a reason for that: the company has told both Forbes and CNET that it is getting out of the Blu-ray player business in the United States.

The large chaebol conglomerate will introduce no new Blu-ray players anywhere, it seems, and will stop making existing players for the US market. This comes as a confirmation of what many observers expected, given that the company last released a new player in 2017. Samsung was reportedly working on a high-end Blu-ray player for release in 2019, according to Forbes, but those plans have been scrapped.

Samsung didn't tell either publication why it decided to exit the business, and there is probably no big, single reason for this shift. But there are a lot of small ones.

Samsung Unpacked 2019 will kick off Wednesday, February 20, at 11am Pacific (2pm ET) in San Francisco. We're going to hear all about Samsung's Flagship lineup for 2019, which includes the Galaxy S10 in many variants.

We already have a huge post here outlining what to expect, but the highlight of the event will be the Galaxy S10 and S10 Plus. These devices are expected to bring a number of advancements to mainstream smartphones. They will be one of the first device families to feature the Snapdragon 855 SoC, Wi-Fi 6, and an ultrasonic in-screen fingerprint sensor. There's also a slick new "hole punch" camera cutout in the display, along with slim bezels, which means the displays are getting even bigger.

We're also getting way more than just the S10 and S10 Plus. There's expected to be a cheaper version of the Galaxy S10 called the "Galaxy S10e," and we might get a look at the upcoming 5G version. Samsung has also spent some time teasing that "The future of mobile will unfold" at the event, which means we'll hear a bit more about the company's upcoming foldable smartphone (the Galaxy F?).

On February 20, Samsung is throwing a huge party in San Francisco, where it will take the wraps off its flagship smartphone lineup for 2019. Given the unbelievable amount of leaks that poured forth, we know just about everything Samsung is planning to show off. We're going to learn all about the Galaxy S10.

This year we're not just getting a device in two sizes but a big lineup of phones. As usual, there's a Galaxy S10 and S10 Plus but also a downmarket version expected to be called the "Galaxy S10e." Upmarket, there's expected to eventually be a bigger, 5G version of the Galaxy S10, but it's unclear how much we'll hear about this model at this week's show. Also in the high end of the spectrum is Samsung's foldable smartphone, which will be at this event in some form.

Samsung's tablets have a lot going for them as enlarged Android devices, but the models really worth considering are quite expensive. Samsung announced the new Galaxy Tab S5e today, a mid-range tablet that the company is hoping will capture people's attention with select premium features and a more accessible $399 price tag.

The high-end nature of the Tab S5e comes in its design. The all-metal unibody is the thinnest and lightest of any Samsung tablet, weighing about 14 ounces and measuring 5.5mm thick. Samsung didn't skimp too much on the display, either, sticking a 10.5-inch, 2560×1600 AMOLED panel with a 16:10 aspect ratio on the tablet. It's also the first Samsung tablet with Bixby built in, allowing users to call on the voice assistant to answer questions, control connected SmartThings devices, and more.

Samsung highlights the multitasking capabilities of the tablet, including a new continuity feature and Dex support. The former lets users make and receive calls and texts from the tablet (it will be available in Wi-Fi and LTE versions) while the latter is Samsung's experimental desktop version of Android. Users can connect a keyboard, mouse, and even an external monitor to the tablet and use Dex to expand Android into a desktop-like software that makes it easier to do many things at once.

Smartphones hold most of our lives now in photos, videos, music, and more, and Samsung's latest tech will make it so they can store even more. The Korean manufacturer announced that it has created the first 1TB embedded Universal Flash Storage (eUFS) chip for smartphones, which will allow future handsets to have internal storage capacities similar to those of laptops.

"The 1TB eUFS is expected to play a critical role in bringing a more notebook-like user experience to the next generation of mobile devices," said Cheol Choi, executive vice president of Memory Sales and Marketing at Samsung.

Samsung has already begun mass-producing the chip, which it claims has read speeds of up to 1,000Mbps—nearly twice the sequential read speed of a typical 2.5-inch SATA SSD and faster than Samsung's previous 512GB chip. A device with the 1TB chip can reportedly store 260 10-minute, 4K videos—a massive amount that dwarfs the capabilities of current smartphones with lower-capacity eUFS chips. The 1TB chips will also have the same package size as its 512GB counterpart, so smartphones won't need to get larger to accommodate the chips.

Enlarge/ The iPhone XS has a different battery design than the iPhone XS Max, which has the same design as the iPhone X. (credit: iFixit)

Apple has hired Soonho Ahn, a former Samsung executive who worked primarily on lithium-ion batteries and other battery-related technologies, Bloomberg reports. Ahn joined Apple in December after a four-year stint at Samsung.

He ran Samsung SDI, which, among other things, supplied Apple with device batteries a few years ago. Bloomberg also reports that Apple is in talks to buy cobalt "directly from miners"—cobalt is needed to make these kinds of batteries. Both revelations suggest that Apple may be looking to make its own batteries rather than source them from other companies.

If there's one guiding product design and business philosophy at Apple, it's that minimizing the number of components and features that are dependent on third parties and other companies leads to a win-win—better products and user experiences for customers, and more profit for the company.

Chromebooks dominated the affordable laptop scene in 2018. The same wasn't true just a few years ago, when most were unclear what to do with Google's browser-based operating system. But now, after Chromebooks have successfully infiltrated the education market, users both young and old are familiar with Chrome OS.

Chrome OS runs exclusively on Chromebooks, the name for the laptops, two-in-ones, and now tablets that run Google's operating system. If you've used the Chrome Web browser before, you know how to use Chrome OS—the browser is the portal to nearly everything you can do on Chrome OS. Google created an operating system that's simple to use, efficient, and low maintenance in the sense that it doesn't take a ton of power to run a Chromebook well.

All of those factors, plus the recent introduction of Android apps into the ecosystem, have made Chromebooks popular with younger users, teachers, and anyone who works and plays primarily within the confines of the Chrome Web browser.